Why do people get tattoos: personality psychology, the desire to stand out and tattoo addiction

September 14, 2018
Life style
Plugatareva Yana

Nowadays, many people get tattoos because they are beautiful and fashionable, but few people think about their meaning. Why do people get tattoos? Psychology has its own answer, which is quite interesting. It turns out that a tattoo can mean a certain symbol that can change a person’s life. Let's look at the most common reasons why people get tattoos.

What is a tattoo

People have been decorating their bodies with all sorts of designs since time immemorial. Once upon a time, such a picture contained information about a person, his social status, tribal membership, etc. Gradually, the functions of tattoos lost their meaning. It has become simply an art form. When tattoo machines were invented, drawing on the body became available to anyone.

Why do people get tattoos

In psychology, there are several factors that influence the desire to make a drawing on your body. Among them:

Thirst for self-expression.
Search for new sensations.
The desire to hide flaws.
A way to deal with complexes.
The desire to attract attention and stand out in your social group.

As we can see, psychology explains quite well why people get tattoos, but there is also a much more mundane reason. A person may simply try to cover up the previous one with a new tattoo. Both the master (poorly executed) and the client (didn’t think through the drawing) can be to blame for a bad image. Not all people go to immediately cover up a tattoo; some try to add something to the drawing to get a presentable look. Most often, such experiments bring the client back to the master’s chair, but in order to completely cover the drawing.

Stress management

Changes in appearance of varying degrees of radicality are a well-known way of dealing with stress. And even outside of critical, unpleasant events, people can modify their appearance.

The reason is the imaginary relationship between image and quality of life. People have a ghostly hope that after a new haircut or tattoo they will be able to start living with a clean slate.

In some situations, such measures can indeed become an indirect catalyst for further changes, but this does not always happen, of course.

Why do girls get tattoos?

When we talk about factors influencing the desire to have a tattoo, we are talking about men. Women are guided by their logic. The most common reasons for girls are as follows:

In the name of love. When a girl is in love, she wants to prove to her man that she is ready to do anything for him. For some, a tattoo is also included in the concept of “everything”.
This is how their beliefs manifest themselves. Mostly teenagers suffer from this. They believe that with the help of a tattoo they will be able to defend their faith or some special views on life.
Another reason why women get tattoos is explained by psychology as masking imperfections. These may be some kind of scars or scars that do not adorn the body. But not everyone understands that stretching of scars is inevitable, so image adjustments will be needed.
Because it's fashionable. There are also people who blindly follow fashion, without thinking about the appropriateness of the action or its meaning.
Because my girlfriends (favorite actress or actor, lover, etc.) have tattoos.

Practical meaning

We are talking about the practical meaning when a person is forced to get a tattoo by certain circumstances. For example: camouflaging a scar. Many people have scars that they carefully try to hide under clothing. This is most true for women. Birthmarks, stretch marks, scars after surgery or acne... Because of such defects, girls often develop serious complexes that are difficult to deal with. In this case, a tattoo can save any person from poor self-esteem. A tattoo is a rational solution to the problem, since cosmetology is not always effective, and plastic surgery is expensive and complex. The craftsmen specially make sure that the design covers all the unevenness on the body and saves the person from unnecessary complexes.

There is another practical meaning, namely the need to get a tattoo because of work. This applies to the military and representatives of law enforcement agencies. They do the tattoo not for intimidation, but rather for their safety. Usually they fill in the blood type, Rh factor, date of birth and other medical information that needs to be conveyed to specialists. All this should also be duplicated on the badge and uniform. However, the most reliable thing is to have such information on your body.

Tattoos for teenagers

Why do young people get tattoos? Because of the desire to demonstrate their own autonomy and independence. An important role is also played by the fact that the owner of the tattoo will stand out sharply among his peers. As soon as a teenager gets a drawing on his body, he begins to feel superior, because he has something that others do not yet have. After some time, everyone gets used to his tattoo. Then the teenager makes another one, this time larger or more significant. If he fails to stop in time, then an innocent hobby can transform into an addiction.

Afterword

You cannot think one-sidedly and classify all tattoo owners as unhealthy people or slaves of fashion. Yes, for some, a tattoo becomes the meaning of life, the only thing that keeps a person in this world. This is its purpose, meaning, value. And for some, a tattoo is self-help, psychotherapy, a reminder of something significant. Someone else simply treats it as jewelry, clothing. In order to more accurately say what motivates a person to be passionate about tattoo art, it is necessary to analyze his overall lifestyle, work, environment, characteristics of relationships with friends and family, and other hobbies.

Compensation

Why do people get tattoos? Psychology provides the answer to this question. A tattoo serves as a compensator or supplement. When a person decides to get a tattoo, he wants to add some character traits to himself or emphasize existing ones. This could be attractiveness, aggression, wisdom, leadership, love of freedom. Subconsciously, both men and women choose tattoos based on these principles. Indeed, in some cases, a tattoo helps you look more attractive. And for a man, a tattoo can add a little brutality.

With the appearance of a tattoo, a person’s self-esteem and self-confidence increase. This behavior is typical of the hysterical type of people who can use a tattoo simply to attract attention to themselves.

Beauty will save the world

People with a visual vector get tattoos and piercings for other reasons. A person with a visual vector has a special sensitivity of vision. Sensual, emotional people who are able to see beauty. They love to admire nature and themselves.

Viewers love everything beautiful - clothes, jewelry. For them, the key word is the word “beauty”. They can decorate themselves with tattoos if they think it will look aesthetically pleasing. For the sake of beauty. Moreover, the higher the level of development of the visual vector, the less the need for external embellishments of one’s own person.

With poor development of the visual vector or in a state of stress, when the desire to create beauty is completely supplanted by fears, another task arises - to attract attention at any cost. This is how freaks appear, taking “self-decoration” to the point of absurdity. The inability to create full-fledged emotional connections with people pushes them to create an image that evokes an emotional reaction from others. An image that literally demands attention.

The presence of a combination of stressful skin and visual vectors almost guarantees a trip to a tattoo parlor, since it is affordable, fashionable, and not condemned by society. Today, tattoos and piercings are one of the easy ways to temporarily relieve mental stress.

Protection

Why do people get tattoos? They try to protect their personality from external influences. Also, a person can try, with the help of a drawing on the body, to “curb” those character traits of his personality that are unpleasant to him. The same principle can be seen in beard fashion. In our world, women and men have equalized their functions, so guys try to emphasize their masculinity with a beard.

Catalyst

Why do they get tattoos? To get out of some protracted state. For many people, getting a tattoo means making a decision or beginning a life change. Indeed, such drawings can become a catalyst for human desires and decision-making.

Psychologists warn that such motivation can develop into addiction. Today a person needs one thing, so he tattooed such a design on his body. tomorrow he will need another, so a new image appears on his body. Ultimately, a person can no longer imagine his existence without new tattoos. It becomes a disease. There are individuals (both men and women) whose tattoos decorate every centimeter of skin on all parts of the body, including the face.

“I’m glad I didn’t decide to get a tattoo 10 years ago”

Kristina Semina

editor of BeautyHack.ru

— I dreamed of a tattoo when I was just a child and watched “Wild Angel” with Natalia Oreiro. She had a pattern on her ankle and I wanted one for myself. When I turned 18, I definitely decided that I needed this. But my mother dissuaded me and gave a bunch of arguments why this shouldn’t be done. As a result, I put off going to the salon for a long time. But one day I went there with a friend. We even took a catalog to choose a design. Then we watched the masters, who had no “living place” on their body, watched how they gave tattoos to others, saw the tools and left. From that moment, I realized that this was really not my story.

More than 10 years have passed, and I am happy that I did not commit this act. Tattoos are a matter of taste, everyone decides for themselves what they need. For me, a symbol of some event can be, for example, a piece of jewelry that will always be with me, or a decorative item placed in a prominent place at home. I know that many people get a tattoo to feel physical pain - it temporarily drowns out mental pain. But even in this case, I’d rather do yoga with complex asanas or stand in the plank.

Identification

The psychology of a tattoo also lies in the fact that it helps to identify in modern society. Now there are a lot of opportunities for implementation, and therefore a person is at a loss and does not know what to do with himself. By getting a tattoo of a certain symbol or design, he can show others what he is all about. In addition, there are medical tattoos that are applied to the body by people suffering from certain ailments, for example, asthma, epilepsy. This is done for cases of seizures, so that others and doctors can immediately understand what happened to the person.

Power over yourself

The psychology of tattoos calls power over oneself as one of the reasons for the desire to decorate one’s own body. In this way, a person shows that he has the right to do whatever he wants with his body. This is a kind of rebellion that often manifests itself in insecure people.

The same reason can be attributed to the desire to show that the young man no longer belongs to his parents. And if in his youth his parents forbade his child to experiment with his appearance, then he will almost certainly get a tattoo as soon as he feels the taste of freedom.

By the way, this is a reason to think about the harm of parental overprotection.

Social groups

Previously, tattoos were made to make it clear which social group a person belongs to. For example, warriors had one tattoo, slaves had another. This also includes the meaning of a tattoo. Particular attention is paid to interpretation in Japan, where the bearer of a tattoo is automatically equated with a certain social group. Nowadays, some (especially teenagers) get tattoos accepted in certain circles of society in order to be accepted in them.

Why you should give up tattoos

There are several reasons why you shouldn't get a tattoo. We will list them all, and you decide for yourself whether to get a tattoo or not:

You should not get designs on your skin when you are young. The point is not that minors are not given it, but that over time, views and priorities change. You may regret something you once did.
If you approach a tattoo unconsciously, over time it will begin to cause irritation. Think carefully about what exactly should decorate your body.
If you have skin diseases or many moles, it is better not to get a tattoo. This also applies to allergy sufferers.
A tattoo can only be done if you are feeling well. Even a slight increase in temperature is a reason to refuse a visit to the specialist. In addition, make sure that the instruments are sterile, otherwise you can get a number of unpleasant diseases.
Getting a tattoo hurts. Of course, everyone's experience is different, but don't expect your procedure to be painless.
The tattoo is quite difficult to remove. After this, unsightly scars and spots remain on the skin.
Be prepared for the fact that not all people are loyal to tattoos. Some still have the belief that only those who have been in prison wear tattoos.
With age, the skin sags, so a tattoo may lose its outline and meaning.
Not every company's managers are loyal to tattoos. In some places they will simply show you the door, despite all your skills and merits.
To get a really beautiful tattoo, you need a lot of money. If they are not there, then it is better to refuse a cheap drawing.
There is no need to exclude the possibility of an allergy to paints.
There is an opinion among doctors that tattoos reduce the functioning of the immune system and contribute to the occurrence of skin cancer.
Rarely does anyone stop at one tattoo; many become dependent on body designs.

Psychological moments

Now let's look at why people get tattoos from a psychological point of view. Here is a much more varied list of reasons:

Socialization.
The desire to emphasize one’s belonging to a certain culture or social group. This is exactly what we talked about at the very beginning of the article, but even in the modern world this reason is one of the most common. To a greater extent, such decisions are typical for teenagers, conformists who are ready to subordinate their opinion to the opinion of the social group to which they belong.
Substitution.
A girl who lacks romance in her life decorates her body with rose petals, fluttering butterflies and hummingbirds. A man who is soft in character, but wants to appear stronger and braver, chooses aggressive sketches - knives, predatory animals.
The desire to decorate your body.
No deep motives, no search for hidden meaning, no symbolism. Just a beautiful pattern that complements the image, emphasizing some pleasant external features of the owner. In a sense, such motives can also be classified as practical.
Impulsive expression of strong emotions.
For a spiritually developed person, a mature and full-fledged personality, this is not very typical, but some cannot restrain their spiritual impulses. Why do they get tattoos? Just because they want to. From our own experience, we can say that these are the people who subsequently most actively sign up for either overlap sessions or complete pattern reduction.
Fanaticism.
This is also more typical for people who are not very mature in personal terms. A tattoo in this case is an expression of love for something, submission. The emblem of your favorite football club, a portrait of a singer, a religious symbol are the most common subjects for such tattoos. Of course, this does not mean at all that all of these sketches are made exclusively by personally immature people, but the general trend is something like this.
Recording some important life event.
The birth of a child, meeting a soul mate, a wedding - all these are important events in the life of each of us. For some, the main memory of them is photographs, but others go further by getting tattoos: portraits of children, loved ones, their names and dates associated with them.

Lack of sensations in life. A characteristic moment for people experiencing a personal crisis and in need of some additional emotional support. A tattoo in this case is perceived as an expression of one’s own vitality, helps a person understand that he is still capable of such unusual and non-standard actions, and can feel “alive”.
Problem with personal boundaries. The main border between our inner world and the outer world is our skin. Applying a pattern to it is a desire to increase its strength, to build up “armor,” which is typical for people with certain complexes, touchy people, and vulnerable people. They often get a lot of tattoos, multiple patterns merge into a whole outfit, and from a distance they look like clothing.
Expression of protest. The explanation of the motives for creating a tattoo on your body in this case is extremely sharp and categorical: “the body is my property, I dispose of my property at my personal discretion!” These actions are typical for teenagers who are under excessive parental care and suffer from this, which is why they are looking for ways to demonstrate their independence.
Increasing personal significance. It sounds quite strange, but for certain categories of people this is the main reason. In this way, they try to make their person more significant and significant in the eyes of others.
Compensation. For some, a tattoo is a way of feeling their own uniqueness and uniqueness, of compensating for some shortcomings, and these shortcomings may well be of an imaginary nature and have nothing to do with the real state of affairs.
Shifting responsibility. This moment occurs in a situation where a person gets a tattoo so that it will help him achieve some goals in life. Didn't achieve the desired result? Well, it can be attributed to the fact that “the tattoo didn’t work.” However, for some, such a symbol is a kind of activity activator, reminding them that they need to make an effort.
Providing some information to the world. Tender, light images speak of the vulnerability of nature, that there is no need to put undue pressure on their owner. Aggressive sketches, such as bestial grins, predatory animals, are a statement of a violent temper, they say, “don’t touch me again - you will remain whole.”